Charles’ history with US presidents: He’s met 10 of past 14

Prince_Charles_Washington_07267 FILE - Britain's Prince Charles and Tricia Nixon talk at RFK Stadium during a baseball game in Washington, July 18, 1970. (AP Photo, File)
Prince_Charles_Washington_21001 FILE - Britain's Prince Charles makes a toast with President George W. Bush at the start of a Social Dinner in the State Dining Room of the White House, Nov. 2, 2005, in Washington. The dinner is honor of Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, seen seated foreground right. (AP Photo/Lawrence Jackson, File)
Prince_Charles_Washington_44058 FILE - Britain's Prince Charles walks with first lady Pat Nixon, President Richard Nixon and his daughter Tricia Nixon on the White House lawn in Washington, July 16, 1970. (AP Photo, File)
Britain_Royals_Charles_US_Presidents_10254 FILE - President Donald Trump and Britain's Prince Charles toast, during the Return Dinner in Winfield House, the residence of the Ambassador of the United States of America to the UK, in Regent's Park, part of the president's state visit to the UK, in London, June 4, 2019. (Chris Jackson/Pool Photo via AP, File)
Britain_Royals_Charles_US_Presidents_14177 FILE - First lady Pat Nixon leads Princess Anne Thursday, July 16, 1970, from welcoming ceremonies at the White House. President Richard Nixon and Prince Charles walk with them. In the background are Julie and David Eisenhower. (AP Photo, File)
Britain_Royals_Charles_US_Presidents_39072 FILE - President Barack Obama meets with Britain's Prince Charles, March 19, 2015, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
Britain_Royals_Charles_US_Presidents_31867 FILE - President George W. Bush, right, greets Britain's Prince Charles on Nov. 2, 2005, on the South Portico of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds, File)
Britain_Royals_Charles_US_Presidents_58128 FILE - President Ronald Reagan and Britain's Prince Charles talk as the two meet in the Oval Office at the White House May 1, 1981. (AP Photo/Ira Schwarz, File)
Britain_Royals_Charles_US_Presidents_08771 FILE - Prince Charles and Tricia Nixon lead the way to join guests at a White House supper-dance, July 17, 1970. Following are Princess Anne, left, and Julie Nixon, hidden, and David Eisenhower. (AP Photo, File)
Prince_Charles_Washington_53903 FILE - Britain's Queen Elizabeth II stands on the grounds of Balmoral Castle, in Royal Deeside, Scotland, with U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Aug. 29, 1959. From left to right are: Prince Philip, partially hidden, Princess Anne, Eisenhower, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles. The two men on the right are unidentified. (AP Photo, File)
Prince_Charles_Washington_32653 FILE - President Richard Nixon waves from the balcony of the Executive Mansion as he and first lady Pat Nixon, right, pose with Britain's Prince Charles, left, and Princess Anne of Britain, July 16, 1970. (AP Photo, File)
Prince_Charles_Washington_90377 FILE - Britain's Prince Charles, left, and former President George H.W. Bush talk as they arrive for the Gala Inaugural for Founding Sponsors of the American Associates of the Saint Catherine Foundation, March 11, 1997, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Nadel, File)
Prince_Charles_Washington_07854 FILE - Prince Charles and Tricia Nixon, daughter of President Richard Nixon, lead the way to join guests at a White House formal supper-dance, July 17, 1970. Following are Princess Anne, left, and Julie, hidden, and Daivd Eisenhower. (AP Photo/RH, File)
Prince_Charles_Washington_99318 FILE - President Donald Trump, right, and first Lady Melania Trump, left, attend a welcome ceremony with Britain's Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall in the garden of Buckingham Palace, in London, June 3, 2019. (Victoria Jones/Pool via AP, File)
Prince_Charles_Washington_69678 FILE - Britain's Prince Charles, left, greets the President Joe Biden ahead of their bilateral meeting during the Cop26 summit at the Scottish Event Campus (SEC) in Glasgow, Scotland, Nov. 2, 2021. (Jane Barlow/Pool Photo via AP, File)
Prince_Charles_Washington_60128 FILE - President George W. Bush poses with Britain's Prince Charles upon his arrival at the White House in Washington, Nov. 2, 2005. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
Britain_Royals_Charles_US_Presidents_53903 FILE - Britain's Queen Elizabeth II stands on the grounds of Balmoral Castle, in Royal Deeside, Scotland, with U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Aug. 29, 1959. From left to right are: Prince Philip, partially hidden, Princess Anne, Eisenhower, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles. The two men on the right are unidentified. (AP Photo, File)
Britain_Royals_Charles_US_Presidents_32653 FILE - President Richard Nixon waves from the balcony of the Executive Mansion as he and first lady Pat Nixon, right, pose with Britain's Prince Charles, left, and Princess Anne of Britain, July 16, 1970. (AP Photo, File)
Britain_Royals_Charles_US_Presidents_07267 FILE - Britain's Prince Charles and Tricia Nixon talk at RFK Stadium during a baseball game in Washington, July 18, 1970. (AP Photo, File)
Britain_Royals_Charles_US_Presidents_07854 FILE - Prince Charles and Tricia Nixon, daughter of President Richard Nixon, lead the way to join guests at a White House formal supper-dance, July 17, 1970. Following are Princess Anne, left, and Julie, hidden, and Daivd Eisenhower. (AP Photo/RH, File)
Britain_Royals_Charles_US_Presidents_90377 FILE - Britain's Prince Charles, left, and former President George H.W. Bush talk as they arrive for the Gala Inaugural for Founding Sponsors of the American Associates of the Saint Catherine Foundation, March 11, 1997, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Nadel, File)
Britain_Royals_Charles_US_Presidents_21001 FILE - Britain's Prince Charles makes a toast with President George W. Bush at the start of a Social Dinner in the State Dining Room of the White House, Nov. 2, 2005, in Washington. The dinner is honor of Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, seen seated foreground right. (AP Photo/Lawrence Jackson, File)
Britain_Royals_Charles_US_Presidents_60128 FILE - President George W. Bush poses with Britain's Prince Charles upon his arrival at the White House in Washington, Nov. 2, 2005. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
Britain_Royals_Charles_US_Presidents_99318 FILE - President Donald Trump, right, and first Lady Melania Trump, left, attend a welcome ceremony with Britain's Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall in the garden of Buckingham Palace, in London, June 3, 2019. (Victoria Jones/Pool via AP, File)
Britain_Royals_Charles_US_Presidents_69678 FILE - Britain's Prince Charles, left, greets the President Joe Biden ahead of their bilateral meeting during the Cop26 summit at the Scottish Event Campus (SEC) in Glasgow, Scotland, Nov. 2, 2021. (Jane Barlow/Pool Photo via AP, File)
Britain_Royals_Charles_US_Presidents_44058 FILE - Britain's Prince Charles walks with first lady Pat Nixon, President Richard Nixon and his daughter Tricia Nixon on the White House lawn in Washington, July 16, 1970. (AP Photo, File)
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Hanging out with Richard Nixon’s daughter Tricia at a White House supper-dance. Swapping stories with Ronald Reagan about horseback riding. Bending the ears of Donald Trump and Joe Biden about climate change.

King Charles III, who became head of state following the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, has made the acquaintance of 10 of the 14 U.S. presidents who have held office since he was born in 1948.

He was just 10 when he checked off his first president in 1959. That was when Dwight Eisenhower visited the queen and her family at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, where she died on Sept. 8 after a 70-year-reign.

“I guess you can’t start too early,” said Barbara A Perry, director of presidential studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. She noted that Charles’ grandson, Prince George, was a toddler when Kensington Palace released a photograph of him shaking hands with Barack Obama during the president’s trip to London in 2016.

Charles never met Harry Truman, Gerald Ford, Lyndon Johnson and John F. Kennedy, Perry said.

His encounters with U.S. presidents included what he recalled as an “amusing” weekend visit to Nixon White House in 1970 with his sister Anne, when the 20-year-old future king — one of the world’s most eligible bachelors — sensed there was an effort afoot to set him up.

“That was the time when they were trying to marry me off to Tricia Nixon,” he later recalled.

The king has chatted up presidents on his visits to the U.S. and met others when they traveled in the United Kingdom. He was in the company of Donald Trump, Obama, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush when he represented the British monarchy at the state funeral for former President George H.W. Bush in 2018 in Washington.

Charles met President Joe Biden last year at a climate change conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

The royal has visited America about 20 times since that memorable first trip in the Nixon years, he told CNN last year.

The royal siblings had been invited to Washington by Nixon’s daughters and son-in-law, Tricia Nixon, Julie Nixon Eisenhower and her husband, David Eisenhower, grandson of President Eisenhower, for that three-day visit in July 1970.

The young VIPs had a packed schedule that included frolicking at the Camp David presidential retreat, a nighttime tour of Washington’s monuments, museum visits, a luncheon cruise down the Potomac River to George Washington’s estate at Mount Vernon, Virginia, a dance on the South Lawn for 700 guests, and a Washington Senators baseball game.

Charles and Nixon also met in the Oval Office. But if the president had his heart set a union between his family and the royals, it wasn’t meant to be.

In June 1971, less than a year after Charles’ visit, Tricia married longtime beau Edward Cox in the White House Rose Garden. A decade later, in July 1981, Charles married Lady Diana Spencer. They divorced in 1996.

Nixon, himself, had pushed for Charles to visit the U.S. for the perceived public relations bonanza, according to a January 1970 memo he sent his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger.

“I think this could do an enormous amount of good for U.S.-British relations,” Nixon said. He wrote that he’d been told that Charles “is the real gem” of the royal family and “makes an enormously favorable impression wherever he goes.”

Charles returned the praise in a thank-you note.

“The kindness shown to us at the White House was almost overwhelming and for that we are immensely grateful,” the prince wrote to Nixon. “Both my sister and I take back to Britain the most heartwarming evidence of what is known as the special relationship between our two countries and of the great hospitality shown to us by you and your family.”

Many of the former Prince of Wales’ conversations with recent U.S. presidents centered on his interest in tackling climate change. Charles has campaigned for the environment for 50 years, but he acknowledged after becoming king that his new role requires that he set aside his activism on that and other issues.

Charles, 73, and Biden, 79, discussed global cooperation on the climate crisis last year while both attended a summit in Glasgow, Scotland. They also met at Buckingham Palace in June 2021 at a reception the queen hosted before a world leaders’ summit in Cornwall.

Biden rejoined the 2015 Paris climate agreement after Trump as president withdrew the U.S. from the accord.

Biden and the king spoke on Wednesday, with Biden offering his condolences over the queen.

Trump has said that during his visit with Charles, the former prince “did most of the talking” and pressed him on climate during a scheduled 15-minute meeting that stretched to 90 minutes in 2019 at Charles’ residence in London.

During a three-day visit to Washington in 2011, Charles, an advocate of environmentally friendly farming, met with President Obama. In a speech, he praised Michelle Obama’s campaign against childhood obesity and hunger, and U.S. manufacturers’ efforts to produce healthier foods.

He criticized U.S. government subsidies for large-scale agriculture and encouraged increased business and government support for organic and environmentally friendly food production.

In his toast at a White House dinner in 2005, the future king told President George W. Bush that the world looks to the United States “for a lead on the most crucial issues that face our planet and, indeed, the lives of our grandchildren.

“Truly, the burdens of the world rest on your shoulders,” he said.

In the remarks, Charles also said the trip reminded him of his first visit to America, “when the media were busy trying to marry me off to Tricia Nixon.”

Visiting with Reagan in the Oval Office in 1981, the two discussed their interest in horseback riding as a steward brought tea. But it was not served the British way.

Of the experience, Reagan later wrote in his diary:

“The ushers brought him tea — horror of horrors they served it our way with a tea bag in the cup. It finally dawned on me that he was just holding the cup and finally put it down on the table. I didn’t know what to do,” Reagan confessed.

___

AP News Researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.

Follow the AP’s coverage of King Charles III at: https://apnews.com/hub/king-charles-iii

Copyright © 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.

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